| HOW TO SCORE COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH PAPER |
How to Get Good Marks in Reading Comprehension ?
Friends, Now a days, almost every competitive exam asking reading comprehension questions. In these type of questions, they will give you a passage / comprehension and will ask you to read that and answer the questions followed by that passage. Actually this Reading Comprehension section is designed to test the ability of the student to read a passage and understand its contents and his ability to draw inferences on the basis of what is read. In simple words, the student's ability to grasp the contents of the passage in a relatively short span of time is what is being tested. The Student is expected to read the given passage, understand its contents well and answer the questions given at the end of the passage. All this to be completed in the limited time that is given. There are two important skills you should develop to do well in reading comprehension. Those are,
1. Reading Rate
2. Understanding of the Passage
Lets have a look at each of them individually to get a clear understanding, before we get into the techniques of attempting Reading Comprehension.The reading skill cant be evaluated on a number of words per minute scale, but reading rate can definitely be measured. A person who can read faster can answer more number of questions in the given time than a person with slower reading speed, Other things remaining the same. It is this reading rate or your speed of reading that you have to aim at improving. There is no overnight solution to this. Constant and extensive reading will improve your reading rate. Check your reading speed today (take any passage, count the number of words,clock the time taken by you to read it and calculate the speed in words per minute) and keep a record of it. Then, keep checking your speed regularly and tabulate the same. Check whether your speed has increased over time with practice. However, do not become complacent if your speed has increased.
This brings us to the second point.. i.e., understanding of the passage. A person may be able to read the passage much faster than others but if he is not able to answer the questions pertaining to the passage, then the speed is of no use at all. it is very essential to grasp the meaning of the passage while reading. While you are reading, you should constantly think, evaluate, reason out, judge and co relate with what has already been read. A good vocabulary would enable you understand the nuances and grasp the meaning of various issues discussed in the passage. While an attempt can be made at pointing out various categories of quesiotns that may be asked and give a variety of tips, you will basically have to draw on the resources buitl by wide and extensive reading and rely on your own vocabulary. No training will possible regarding understanding and analysing the problem. However, we are going to take you through an extensive set of tests followed by this article to ensure that you get thorough practice in Comprehension Reading. In addition to good vocabulary, also needed is the ability to zero in on the central theme of the passage. This can be developed with extensive reading practice as well as proper concentration at the time of reading the passage. Y ou should also consciously develop the habit of correlating each new sentence read with the part of the passage already read and mentally form a linkage of all ideas expressed in the passage while simultaneously weeding out redundant statements.
The passage given in competitive exams (especially for bank exams) do not conform to any standards as regards the subject matter or the length of the passage. While the subjects covered can be as wide ranging as Economy, Sciences (like Botony , Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Astornomy), Social Sciences (like Pshycology, History, Politics, Sociology), Humanities (like Literature, Art, Music) or Current Topics (Social, Political, Economical), the student is not expected to have any prior knowledge of the topics given.
The passages will sometimes be very complex in nature while others will be simple in nature and easy to understand.
The questions themselves can pertain either to parts directly contained in the passage or related to implications and inferences. Sometimes you may be asked to comment on the tone of the passage or to choose a title for the passage or to identify the main idea in the passage but you are hardly ever asked for your opinion on the passage.
Important Tips for Reading Comprehension How to Get Good Marks in Reading Comprehension friends, in our last post we've discussed some basic techniques on how to get good marks in Reading Comprehension section of bank and other competitive exams. (you can read that post here). In this post we shall discuss some important points you should keep in mind while dealing with Reading Comprehension problems.What to read first? The given Passage or Questions? There are people belonging to both schools of thought. But it is preferable to read the passage first to get a grasp of the broad ideas the author is trying to communicate and then take up the questions one by one. In the process of going through the passage initially, underline key words and phrases as well as some important points in the passage (for online exam you can’t mark anything so better keep important words in your mind instead of writing anywhere). Then, when you go through each question, get back to the relevant portion of the passage, read it more thoroughly this time and then answer the question. As mentioned in our previous post, the following are the major categories of questions that are asked : 1. Main idea of the passage / title for the passage 2. Specific details basically reproducing what is given in the passage 3. Drawing inferences / implications 4. Determining the meaning of words /phrases as used in the passage or by the author 5. Application of the ideas expressed in the passage to other situations Where you have to choose a title for the passage or identify the main them of the passage, check the opening and closing sentences of each paragraph particularly the opening sentence of the first paragraph and the last sentence of the last paragraph. At the same time, be wary about too specific or too broad choices in the multiple choices given. We are planning to give you a number of practice tests on Reading Comprehension as this is one of the crucial area of Competitive Exams. We hope these tests may enable you to get sufficient practice in this important area. Please remember that in this area, unlike in other areas like Maths or Reasoning where you will be able to assess for yourself how much of new knowledge you have added on and how much of improvement in speed you have achieved, there will not be such clear indicators. However, performance in reading comprehension will improve only with practice and that requires a lot of effort and determination on your part. In addition to the online tests you take from this blog, you will have to put in at least 45 minutes of reading practice per day to improve your reading speed and comprehension. You need to take up serious reading material for practice - News Papers Editorials, editorials in general magazines like India Today or Business Magazines like Business India or other articles in such magazines, general books on a wide variety of subjects like Psychology, Sociology, Technology, etc. For each article or part of a book that you are reading , go through the process of reading, writing down from memory a few important points from what you have just read and then checking back with the text whether any important points got left out. This exercise done regularly over a period of time will certainly help you improve your reading speed as well as your ability to understand and retain what you read. But, as already mentioned, only regular practice can help you in this regard. All The Best... |
